This is from the Times. It’s not looking good for Pret, is it?
Pret A Manger did not respond to nine warnings that its baguettes could cause a deadly allergic reaction before the death of a teenager who ate one, an inquest was told yesterday.
Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, died on a British Airways flight to Nice after eating an olive and tapenade baguette from a branch of Pret A Manger in Heathrow Terminal 5.
The teenager, who had severe food allergies, was unaware that sesame seeds had been baked into the bread. Her father, Nadim, 53, who was with Natasha, said that the ingredient was not listed on the packaging.
It emerged yesterday that there had been nine cases of sesame-related allergy incidents in the year before Natasha died, including six that involved “artisan baguettes”, according to a complaint log for the company.
Four people required hospital treatment and another went to a medical centre. In one case a girl aged 17 nearly died after an anaphylactic reaction to sesame seeds in a Pret sandwich nine months before Natasha’s death. The girl’s father, a doctor, was present and helped to prevent the episode from being fatal. The teenager’s family contacted Pret A Manger and expressed alarm that “similar adverse events could easily occur”.
Jeremy Hyam, QC, representing Natasha’s family, told West London coroners’ court that the company had been given “a specific warning” but failed to properly label its sandwiches with allergy information. He said: “There was a clear concern being repeatedly raised that artisan baguettes were causing sesame seed allergy problems, which were not properly responded to by Pret.”
Pret A Manger has a policy of placing allergy signs within fridges, advising customers to ask staff for details. Abdoulaye-Djouma Diallo, general manager of the Heathrow branch, said he was “confident and sure” that he had put the stickers on the fridges.
Mr Hyam told the court, however, that a council health officer who visited the branch in May last year reported “there were no till stickers to be seen at the till area”. Mr Hyam also produced a photograph taken eight days after Natasha’s death which showed a Pret A Manger fridge with no allergy label.
Under EU regulations, when food is handmade and packaged on the premises, as is the case for Pret A Manger, outlets are not required to put allergen information on each individual food item. The clause is designed to free small, independent businesses from onerous regulations.
On Monday Mr Ednan-Laperouse told the court that there was no label on the fridge the day his daughter died. He said that he had the “vigilance levels of a hawk” and would have noticed any label.
Natasha, from Fulham, southwest London, suffered an allergic reaction after take-off on July 17, 2016. Her father told the court that Natasha cried: “Daddy, help me, I can’t breathe,” before losing consciousness and suffering a cardiac arrest. After landing, Natasha was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Mr Ednan-Laperouse said that after his daughter’s death he had asked his mother to visit a London branch of Pret A Manger to examine the sandwich.
Finding nothing on the label, she asked at the counter and was given a folder. “My mother looked down the list and found that the baguette dough had sesame seed inside it. I was stunned that a big food company like Pret could mislabel a sandwich and this could cause my daughter to die. It was their fault.”
Jonathan Perkins, the chain’s director of risk and compliance, said that Pret A Manger “responded appropriately to each individual complaint at the time.” He added that the company had carried out an investigation, which found “appropriate signage and labelling [was] in place” but that it nevertheless chose to “enhance the signage”.
Pret A Manger said it was “deeply saddened” by Natasha’s death. Clive Schlee, 59, its chief executive, attended the first two days of the inquest but has yet to comment.
The inquest continues.